AUSTIN, Texas—(BUSINESS WIRE)—June 4, 2007—
The Silicon Integration Initiative's Open Modeling Coalition has
finalized the Si2 Effective Current Source Modeling (ECSM) Statistical
Extensions specification draft. The new specification will be
released, after approval, as an Si2 standard after a 60-day patent
exclusionary period completes. On release, the statistical version of
ECSM will become available to the broad electronics industry, both
users and EDA vendors alike, regardless of Si2 membership.

Continuing to build on the popular ECSM format for modeling
timing, noise, and power, the addition of the statistical library
format extensions makes the ECSM standard the most advanced open
modeling format available. In July 2006 Cadence Design Systems
(Nasdaq:CDNS), Magma(R) Design Automation Inc. (Nasdaq:LAVA) and
Extreme DA, with support from ARM (LSE:ARM) (Nasdaq:ARMHY), Virage
Logic Corporation (Nasdaq:VIRL), and Altos Design Automation, had
announced their intention to work together to accelerate the creation
of a standard statistical analysis library format under the Open
Modeling Coalition to support next-generation, variation-aware
integrated circuit (IC) analysis tools. Subsequent to that, in October
2006, a statistical library format was contributed to the OMC in
response to a Request For Technology (RFT) issued by Si2. Additional
work on the statistical extensions was provided by Intel, Freescale,
and Sun Microsystems after the contribution was made to the OMC. This
effort to rapidly converge on a single open-standard statistical
modeling format will facilitate the deployment of innovative
statistical analysis technologies and enables greater design tool
interoperability.

"The OMC is working to provide open standards for statistical
modeling formats for design tools," said Timothy Ehrler, OMC chair and
senior manager of CAD Global Infrastructure at AMD. "We again see the
on-schedule delivery of another important phase of a library modeling
system and standard resulting from this collaborative effort by EDA,
IP, and IDM industry leaders."

The ECSM statistical extensions accurately model the impact of
process and environmental variation - a potentially performance
depriving problem - which can negate many of the advantages of moving
to process nodes at or below 65nm. Using a statistical approach to
timing analysis allows designers to unlock the true potential of
smaller process technologies by reducing the pessimism that can rob
chip performance in traditional design methodologies. The key to this
emerging statistical standard is that it uses sensitivities to process
and environmental device parameters to holistically model variations
around nominal operating points. The statistical format accurately
accounts for global, within-the-die, and random variations. The net
result - fewer analysis corners, increased chip performance, and
better silicon.

"This newest extension to ECSM addresses a critical need of our
leading-edge member companies to effectively and accurately model
manufacturing process variations in design," says Sumit DasGupta, sr.
vice president of Si2. "This capability is essential for our customers
to stay on-board the ITRS roadmap and capitalize on the features
offered by the latest technology nodes."

This new ECSM technology will be demonstrated at the Design
Automation Conference, June 3-7, in San Diego, CA. Altos Design
Automation (Booth #1260) will be demonstrating Variety(tm) which
supports the statistical extensions in ECSM. Cadence (in the Si2 Booth
#5362) will also be demonstrating ECSM technology as implemented in
their tools.

"The major roadblocks to adoption of statistical timing are
characterization performance and lack of a standard library format,"
says Jim McCanny, CEO of Altos Design Automation, Inc. "Altos is
committed to removing these bottlenecks with on-going support for
Si2's ECSM statistical library format."

Si2 is an organization of industry-leading semiconductor, systems,
EDA and manufacturing companies focused on improving the way
integrated circuits are designed and manufactured in order to speed
time-to market, reduce costs, and meet the challenges of sub-micron
design. Si2 is uniquely positioned to enable collaboration through a
strong implementation focus driven by its member companies. Si2
focuses on developing practical technology solutions to industry
challenges. Si2 represents over 100 companies involved in all parts of
the silicon supply chain throughout the world.

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